


Tadashi's Legacy, Hiro's Pride (and the One Time it Was the Opposite)

by myheartsegg



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Gen, I'm still crying, Post-Canon, Post-Movie, Tadashi's pride is Hiro, but I'm not in denial anymore, much angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-15 19:07:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3458474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myheartsegg/pseuds/myheartsegg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tadashi's legacy lived on in Baymax. But his pride? His pride was someone who didn't know he was going to help so many people. So many. (Without him or not).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tadashi's Legacy, Hiro's Pride (and the One Time it Was the Opposite)

"How did I end up doing this...?" Hiro grumbled under his breath, blowing a stray piece of his bangs out of his vision. He crossed his arms huffily.

"Aw, c'mon Hiro!" Honey Lemon cooed, grabbing his arm and shaking him lightly. "Aren't they so cute?"

The teen gazed back at the group of kids they had been asked to babysit as part of a social science experiment for their compulsory humanities class. It was his and Honey's turn to do their research, and the kids at the orphanage had been excited that there was going to be a change from the tough, 'I-won't-take-anyone's-funny-business' Gogo and the 'mother-hen' Wasabi.

A kid standing diagonal from Hiro coughed and spat out a red Lego piece.

"Yeah,  _charming_ ," he said dryly.

"Hey mister!" A voice called somewhere from the pair's left. A chubby child with wild red curls bounded up to them. "Why're you so short?"

The teen twitched and held his tongue. Oh, damn, did this kid even know how much mental scarring Hiro could do?  _Patience, Hiro- Patience..._

"Yeah! Why're you so short?" "Yeah!"

The previous smattering of children that had littered around the playroom had now condensed in front of the two SFIT students, jeering at the younger's height.

"And the pretty lady next to you is so tall!" "Wow!" "She's like a super model!"

Honey crooned and crouched to pat them on their heads. Hiro grit his teeth and clenched his hands. (Okay, yeah, he was short, but that was only because he was still in his growth spurt! If it weren't for the fact that he never ate nor slept regularly because of college, he would have been a bean pole by now!)

"We'll call you Shrimpy!" "Shrimpy! Shrimpy! Shrimpy! Shriiimmmpyyy!" the kids chanted.

The blonde gasped and covered her mouth, eyes hesitantly flicking towards Hiro and then back to the assembled children. Should she evacuate them from the area before her friend had a nuclear explosion?

Thankfully, she didn't have to, as Hiro surprised her with a beaming smile. A hand came up to rub the back of his neck.

"Yeah, I guess I am pretty short," he admitted patiently. Honey gaped.

"But thankfully I have someone to make up for it."

The children stared at him confusedly. A person could make up for his missed height with  _another person_?

Eyes glinting with mischief, Hiro reached into his backpack (which Honey had entirely forgotten the teen had brought with him) and pulled out an all too familiar red case.

The younger Hamada placed the device on the floor, the kids paying rapt attention to the mysterious object.

"Can I... touch it?" one asked hesitantly.

"Wait," Hiro announced, "he hasn't woken up yet."

The childrens' eyes grew wide with wonder. Honey had a sinking feeling where this was going...

"Hey kid," Hiro said, nodding his head at the red-haired child from before.

"M-me?" he asked, pointing a finger at himself.

"Yeah, you. What's your name?"

"Charley."

The teen nodded sagely. "Alright Charley, care to wake up my friend?"

The pudgy child grinned and bounced to the front of the crowd, puffing his chest out. "Of course!" he crowed triumphantly. The others behind him looked on in interest.

Hiro smiled at him but didn't say a word.

"..."

"..."

The kid's puffed out chest slowly deflated once he noticed there was no sound or movement. The genius looked on with a knowing smile.

"U-um... how do I wake him up again?" the kid asked, as if he had known in the first place and had only just forgotten.

"I'm glad you asked," Hiro smirked, reaching a hand back into his bag and pulling out  _duct tape_. The teen detached a medium-length strip and approached the child.

"Duct tape?" Charley questioned dubiously, eyebrow raised in a bored expression. "What does duct tape have to do with any of thi- hey!"

Hiro lifted the kid's arm and pulled back his sleeve.

"Hiro, I-" Honey tried, hand coming out to stop her friend.

Too late, the teen had already slapped the adhesive to the child's arm and hooked his finger on the edge he had left unstuck for easy removal. Honey Lemon cringed.

With a smirk and an evil glint in his eyes, Hiro ripped the duct tape off Charley's arm, leaving a large, rectangular slab of reddened skin.

"OW!" the kid screeched, hand slapping over the inflicted area. "What is  _wrong_  with you mister?"

The rest of the kids backed up, suddenly scared of the guy who was just as short - but comparably as vicious - as their last sitter, Gogo.

Hiro straightened and gave a grin, attention not even on the kid. As expected, a little beep came from his right, and the sound of a balloon filling with air was heard.

"This, is Baymax. And he's the guy you just woke up," he announced, hand gesturing to what seemed to be a sentient marshmallow.

The children stared with bulging eyes, much as Hiro had done when he had first laid sight on his brother's project. Baymax was impressive at first glance. Unassuming in the beginning - maybe even a little dull, yet complex when one knew how much work had been put into developing such an advanced AI.

The nurse bot waddled out of his charging station and toddled up to the group of children. "Hello, I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion," the robot greeted, hand coming up in a circular wave.

"Whoa..." the assembly of youths echoed, mouths hanging open and missing teeth showing. Baymax's head swiveled to Charley, and he waddled his way closer. Revenge extracted two-fold, Hiro grinned at their dumb-founded expressions and moved to stand behind his best friend - mouthing the rest of the customary startup line as if he was the one saying it.

"I was alerted to the need for medical attention when you said: 'ow'."

The teen grinned. "Show 'em what you can do, Buddy," Hiro encouraged with a nod of his head. He had chosen right in activating Baymax.

For one, it was great to see his brother's dream in action. Two, it felt as if he was continuing what Tadashi had always wanted Baymax to do - what he had  _programmed_  Baymax to do: help others. Three, Baymax was getting field work done and gaining experience in dealing with others outside of the Nerd Crew.

Though he was half-loathe to do it, Hiro had promised himself that in honour of Tadashi's memory, he would make Baymax a success throughout the world. A Baymax in every house, in every hospital, and in every workplace - making sure that each person's healthcare needs were attended to.

(Of course when that happened, Hiro would keep  _his_  Baymax's original files and only copy the essential skills and knowledge the other Baymaxes would need when they were ready for public reveal and the market's assembly line production.)

But first that required collecting on-site data and thorough testing on client interaction, safety, and satisfaction.

It had actually been surprising that such an opportunity had come up. Hiro mentally patted himself on the back. He was  _such_  a genius!

"I will scan you now... Scan complete."

Ah, he knew what was coming next.

"I have detected an epidermal abrasion on your left arm. I would suggest an antibacterial spray."

Baymax reached an arm out and Charley readily complied, still gaping in surprise as the marshmallow-bot took care of his injury.

The teen grinned when the nurse bot produced a lollipop out of thin air. "You have been a good boy," Baymax intoned, giving the ginger a soft pat on the head. "Have a lollipop."

Charley whooped in excitement. "Sweet!"

"I can deactivate if you say you are satisfied with your care."

The child looked up from the end of his sucker and smiled, head tilting to the side. "I am satisfied with my care!" he said happily.

A pang of nostalgia went through Hiro, and unwittingly his smile fell around the corners.

That had once been him in that child's place; it had also once been Tadashi who had been in  _his_  place. But how the tables had turned. Tadashi wasn't here with him - at least, not physically.

Over time, the pain of losing his brother and best friend had lessened to an ache, filled in with the presence of the Nerd Herd and Aunt Cass and Mochi, and of course Baymax... But- it still...  _hurt_.

The only thing that eased the sharp stab of grief was the knowledge that if Tadashi had been here with him now, he would have been proud of Hiro.

Given him a hair ruffle; joke about how he had grown up to be just like him - maybe even better - and Hiro would have elbowed his brother in the ribs and shot back that that wasn't a good thing 'cause his brother was the Nerd King and he was the 'cool' sibling - even when they both knew they were just gigantic robotics nerds. That had been the whole irony of the joke.

With Tadashi gone, the irony wasn't quite there, either.

The teen sighed softly, chest twinging with the leftover grief that kept him awake at night and filled his head with barely-there whispers of If's and Could-Have's. Thoughts like this hurt - but not as much as they used to.

He had Baymax now, and as long as he was here, Tadashi lived on in him. He had to remember that.

Baymax shifted and turned away from the group of children, seemingly satisfied that all the others who had cried out "ow" after they had spotted the administered lollipop were in no harm.

On the way back to his case, however, the bot paused and observed his primary patient. He blinked. Hiro's neuro-transmitter levels were low. That indicated that he was... sad.

"Hiro, are you satisfied with your care?" the bot healthcare companion asked, his head tilted to the side questioningly.

Hiro blinked out of the world behind his eyes and looked up into the comforting black gaze of Baymax. The teen smiled fondly - if not a bit sadly at his brother's last and best legacy.

"Yeah bud, I'm fine, really. Just _-.._.  _thinking_."

Honey shot him a concerned glance from the corner of her eyes.

Baymax made no move to continue the conversation, and instead maneuvered to engulf Hiro within his plush arms. "Treatments include compassion and-"

"-physical reassurance, right?" the teen finished for the nurse bot. A minute smile pulled onto his face despite himself. Leave it to Baymax to always know when he needed a hug.

"Yes," Baymax stated, one arm unwinding from its wrap around the teen to pet him on the head. "You will be alright. There, there."

A chuckle escaped in the form of a sigh and Hiro patted the robot's arm fondly. "Thanks, Baymax."

"Would you like me to play the videos?" the nurse bot asked.

The young genius shook his head. That was too personal to share with anyone else. "It's okay. We'll save it for another day, okay big guy? That's all for now - I am satisfied with my care."

With a final, lingering stare, Baymax shuffled over to his charging station. The robot paused, sending a hesitant glance back at Hiro. Lifting a brow, the teen stepped over to the marshmallow.

"What's wrong?" he asked, tilting his head to see if there were any damages inflicted upon his best friend.

Baymax paused for only a moment before turning towards his patient and pulling him into another hug. The young Hamada stilled.

"Tadashi would be proud," Baymax said quietly, reassuringly. "And Hiro, I will always be with you."

The teen felt something in his chest collapse. Collapse and fill in just a little more of that dull ache that had been left with Tadashi's absence. He stifled a whimper into the vinyl that wrapped around his shoulders. That was right. Baymax was here with him now.

"Are you satisfied with your care?"

"I..." Hiro felt his voice crack and took a second to just  _breathe_.

"I am satisfied with my care, Baymax," Hiro whispered ruefully.

The teen watched as the bot unwound himself and stepped into his charging station, deflating and compacting with a faint hiss.

As the teen watched him disappear, he knew that Baymax was right.

Both as Tadashi's legacy, and Hiro's pride, Baymax was there.

But while Hiro's legacy would go on to outlive Tadashi's, the teen knew that somewhere, Tadashi's pride was something that would never disappear.

After all, his brother had said it himself, hadn't he? His declaration of faith in Hiro; his trust and his pride in his little brother...

_I'm not giving up on you._


End file.
